Stay or go away?: The Impact of Perceived Social Safety Climates on Employee Turnover Intentions and the Moderating Role of Leadership Styles

Abstract

Transgressive behavior is prevalent in various organizations, underscoring the significance of fostering a social safety climate. To gain a better understanding of the factors contributing to the development of social safety climates and their consequences, we investigated whether employees' perceived climate for social safety negatively impacts their turnover intentions, with transformational and transactional leadership both acting individually as moderators of this relationship. To explore differences between perceived social safety climates and perceived social unsafety climates, we created a manipulation to put participants in the mindset of their respective conditions. As expected, we found that participants in the social safety condition experienced a greater psychological safety climate, whereas those in the social unsafety condition experienced a greater psychological unsafety climate. Additionally, we found that participants who perceive their work climate as highly socially safe report lower turnover intentions compared to those who perceive their work climate as less socially safe. However, we did not find that transformational or transactional leadership affect the link between perceived social safety climate and employees' turnover intentions. Future research should delve deeper into how social safety climates impact employees over time, considering personal variations and the broader organizational context. Organizations can leverage this knowledge by creating supportive and inclusive workplaces, encouraging open communication, and implementing robust policies that promote a sense of safety for their employees.